Showing posts with label wedding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wedding. Show all posts

Saturday, July 14

What Do You Dance On?



 Have you ever done the chicken dance at a wedding reception?

If so, you got out on that special foundation installed just for dancing. You scheduled time just to be there. No, not to do the chicken dance but to attend the wedding and reception. Why? To share in the joyous occasion of celebrating the marriage, right? You made time to celebrate.

What inspires and excites us to praise the Lord and dance before Him? Do we wait for special occasions, or do we schedule time to celebrate our relationship with our Beloved Bridegroom? And on what do we dance? The fragile fabrication the world offers or the firm foundation God gives us?

Christ is our Rock, our Foundation; therefore, our hearts rejoice and dance on that firm footing of faith in Him and the truths in God’s Word.

There are times for dancing, times for celebrating, as the author of Ecclesiastes tells us, “A time to laugh...A time to dance.” (Eccl. 3:4 TLB) Oh, we love to dance when there’s a good reason to celebrate, like times of triumph and happiness.

We love to “trip the light fantastic,” as the saying goes. We frolic light-footed and graceful on the peak of gaiety, but what about those other times in our lives, those times when our hearts suffer the pangs of trials and heartaches?

As the Bible says, there is also “A time to weep...A time to mourn.” (Eccl. 3:4 NKJV) But sometimes in our mourning, rather than pirouetting in twirls of glee that the Lord is with us, we spiral down into a valley of gloominess and our dancing feet feel like they are made of lead weights.

In those times of heartache, God will revive us, just as He told Israel through Jeremiah, “I will rebuild you...You will again be happy and dance merrily with your tambourines.” (Jer. 31:4 NLT)

In one of those times in David’s life, he rejoiced in the Lord, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.” (Ps. 30:11 NKJV)

Another time, he said, “But let righteous people rejoice. Let them celebrate in God’s presence. Let them overflow with joy.” (Ps. 68:3 GW)

Do you set aside other activities and schedule time to be in the Lord’s presence to praise Him and celebrate with Him? Do you enjoy dancing with your Beloved Bridegroom?

Just think: when we get to heaven, we’ll dance with Him on that eternal foundation, those streets of gold. There’s a song our church loves to sing called We Will Dance. It always gives me goosebumps. If you’ve never heard it, I hope you’ll listen to it.

Sing a song of celebration, lift up a shout of praise
For the Bridegroom will come the glorious one...



 
We will dance on the streets that are golden,
The glorious bride and the great Son of man;
From ev’ry tongue and tribe and nation
We’ll join in the song of the Lamb.
 
Bride, your Bridegroom waits to dance with you!


* Today, I celebrate, with my hubby, our 46 th wedding anniversary. Thank you, my dear sweet one, for every year. I love you!

** This post is part of the monthly Christianwriters.com blog chain. This month’s topic is celebrate. Please check out the other great posts in the right sidebar.

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Thursday, April 8

Are You Dressed Right for the Wedding?

One day, Jesus and the disciples went to the temple. The chief priests and Pharisees confronted Jesus as He began to teach. He began telling them The Parable of the Wedding Feast…

“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son.” (Matt. 22:2 NKJV) He went on to tell how the king sent out invitations but, when he sent his servants to tell the people that the banquet was ready, they refused to come.

So, the king ordered his servants into the highways to invite everyone they could find. These accepted the invitation, came to the wedding, and filled up the hall.

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” (Matt. 22:11-13 NKJV)

This man was not wearing the garment provided for him. He presumptuously entered in his own attire, without honor for the king.

The custom of many countries in biblical days was to wear long, white robes at weddings and other occasions. Those having wealth, and especially royalty, made every provision for those invited to a wedding, which included the furnishing of wedding garments.

Refusing to accept or wear one of these garments was not only the highest insult and disrespect, but, in some countries, also worthy of punishment.

God has provided and honored us with our wedding garments, as Isaiah said, “He clothed me with garments of salvation; He put on me the robe of righteousness, even as a bridegroom is adorned with his ornament, and as the bride wears her jewels.”

The acceptable wedding garment cannot be purchased; it is given only as a gift. The King has generously provided each one of us with the wedding garment of righteousness and holiness through His Son Jesus. We cannot enter the wedding feast without it.

The writer of Hebrews tells us to “seek to live a clean and holy life, for one who is not holy will not see the Lord.” (Heb 12:14 TLB)

*Do we insult the Father by wearing our own garment of self-sufficiency rather than the one He has given us?
*Do we live a clean and holy life, keeping our wedding garment spotless?
*Are we dressed properly?



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